The present invention relates to a device for transporting printing plates in a processing unit, in which the printing plates in the processing station in question are brought from a starting position into a final position on a processing table.
The device is especially suitable for processing units in which printing plates carrying information in the form of script and images, which plates are suitable for use directly in the printing process, are produced by applying an electrostatic charge to the printing plate, projecting an original image-wise onto the printing plate, and developing, fixing, and decoating the printing plate. In order to carry out these process steps, the printing plate passes through the respective processing stations. In individual stations, such as, for example, the exposing station, or the developing station, the printing plate rests on a processing table which forms a chamber and which possesses a number of holes in its upper surface. The chamber is connected to a vacuum pump, via a suction line. In this way, the printing plate which is resting on the processing table is firmly held on the latter by generating a suction within the chamber during the processing. After a termination of the processing step in question, the printing plate is transported to the next processing station.
A device for transporting printing plates, which are stacked in a magazine, to an exposing station, and for positioning the plates, is described in German Patent Application No. P 30 25 201.8. This device has a movable actuator which possesses suction-elements on its extendable and retractable actuating rod, by means of which the printing plates are transported from a magazine standing at right angles to the transport direction, to a gripping device which is open in the upward direction. The gripping device rotates the printing plates into the horizontal attitude and transports them toward the exposing station. However, this device is unsuitable for pushing a printing plate which is already in the horizontal attitude on a processing table from a starting position into a desired final position, in the course of which movement that end of the printing plate which points in the transport direction always reaches the same final position, irrespective of the printing plate format.